"I refuse to testify unless you agree not to make me testify" is a...unique...argument. I assume he's also said that he will only drive the speed limit if the police agree not to give him a speeding ticket.

Where exactly did Mr Law-Talking-Guy get his law degree? From a Happy Meal?

It says here, that Mueller's investigation is a profit-making venture! (Although of course not intended as such.) The forfeitures by the criminal Manafort exceed the cost of the investigation. (Where does such money go? Ignoring private claimants to some of the Manafort money, does the government's net revenue from such forfeitures go to fund DoJ investigations? Or just into a U.S. Treasury general fund?)

It says here, that Mueller's investigation is a profit-making venture! (Although of course not intended as such.) The forfeitures by the criminal Manafort exceed the cost of the investigation. (Where does such money go? Ignoring private claimants to some of the Manafort money, does the government's net revenue from such forfeitures go to fund DoJ investigations? Or just into a U.S. Treasury general fund?)

It says here, that Mueller's investigation is a profit-making venture! (Although of course not intended as such.) The forfeitures by the criminal Manafort exceed the cost of the investigation. (Where does such money go? Ignoring private claimants to some of the Manafort money, does the government's net revenue from such forfeitures go to fund DoJ investigations? Or just into a U.S. Treasury general fund?)

It just goes into the Treasury, just like everything else. From what I understand, only Congress can authorize the spending of money, and any revenue generated by government operations that Congress has not authorized the department to reinvest in its own operations would simply get thrown on the pile. I have no idea if Congress has authorized anyone to use their own funds generated by their operations to spend money beyond their original appropriation, but I assume it's possible for the same reason that Congress often explicitly lets the Executive branch write regulations to fill in the blanks of some laws that Congress doesn't want to deal with the details of.

It just goes into the Treasury, just like everything else. From what I understand, only Congress can authorize the spending of money, and any revenue generated by government operations that Congress has not authorized the department to reinvest in its own operations would simply get thrown on the pile. I have no idea if Congress has authorized anyone to use their own funds generated by their operations to spend money beyond their original appropriation, but I assume it's possible for the same reason that Congress often explicitly lets the Executive branch write regulations to fill in the blanks of some laws that Congress doesn't want to deal with the details of.

(Emphasis added.) I think the correct idiom for this case is "thrown into the pit".

Rosenstein was going to resign in mid-February, presumably when Mueller no longer needed protection from firing. Now it'll be mid-March, although Barr is now in place as AG and it shouldn't matter when Rosenstein leaves anymore. So maybe Barr isn't going to do it either? Maybe it's just too late to save Individual-1 anyway?

I'm reasonably willing to believe that some form of Russian-interference report might be imminent. But I'll hold by the point that the total investigation certainly ain't over while Elliott Broidy walks the Earth a free man.

Now, granted, there is a case where the core issues:

1) Did Trump work with Russia, in return for something?
2) Does Russia have kompromat on Trump that impelled him to operate in their favor?

Where Mueller might have hit a dead end. Fundamentally, the secrets are too closely guarded and/or hard to prove (in this eventuality). And Mueller may have decided that other than prosecuting some people for lying to him on the way, he's basically gone as far as he can, so long as Manafort isn't willing to flip. And anything outside of the two above questions are, at the end of the day, beyond his mandate.

In this case, we might expect to see Mueller close the book and go home.

But, at the same time, we would expect to see the SDNY, the remainder of the FBI, the House investigative committees, etc. continue to follow up on various cases of bank fraud, tax fraud, election finance crimes, selling nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia, etc. that were perhaps initially discovered and felt out by Mueller, and then spun out to be further investigated by dedicated teams.

The Mueller investigation ending doesn't, per se, have to mean the end of the Mueller investigation. It could just indicate that the total scope of crimes and criminal activity was so immense as to dwarf the one man and his team. And, just by happenstance, the criminal concern that triggered it all couldn't be traced to hard evidence.

I think that if one thing is certain, despite everything else, it's that Trump is already criminally accused under sealed indictment. Cohen went into court and made a statement that his former boss was an active criminal. That almost certainly lead directly to a sealed indictment being issued. Trump goes to jail as soon as he's no longer President, any way you cut it. It's purely a question of what all else gets added on and who else gets pulled down along the way.

I think that if one thing is certain, despite everything else, it's that Trump is already criminally accused under sealed indictment. Cohen went into court and made a statement that his former boss was an active criminal. That almost certainly lead directly to a sealed indictment being issued. Trump goes to jail as soon as he's no longer President, any way you cut it. It's purely a question of what all else gets added on and who else gets pulled down along the way.

If this turns out to be so, I think there is a realistic chance of Trump defecting. And won't that put the cat among the pigeons.

Trump goes to jail as soon as he's no longer President, any way you cut it.

I'll take that bet. We are never, ever going to jail a sitting or former President. Basically every Presidency afterward would end in a prison term if we did. Note that the Right still manages to convince themselves that "both sides do it" and that Obama/Hillary are way worse than Trump. All of this "Trump is going to jail" stuff is just fantasy. The best we can actually hope for is to remove him and his party from where they can continue to do damage.

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